The effect of intrauterine cephapirin treatment after insemination on conception rate in repeat breeder dairy cows subjected to the progesterone-based Ovsynch protocol

Abstract

Subclinical endometritis contributes to repeat breeder syndrome in dairy cows. This study evaluated the effect of intrauterine cephapirin benzathine administration aft er timed artificial insemination (TAI) on the conception rate (CR) in repeat breeder dairy cows. To determine the antibiotic effects, all cows (n = 335) that had more than 3 services with no clinical abnormalities of the reproductive tract received the same combined synchronisation protocol: an ear implant containing progestagen using the Ovsynch protocol and a third gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) administration 7 days aft er TAI. Cows in the treatment group (TRT; n = 160) received intrauterine cephapirin 12 h aft er TAI, and cows in the control group (CON; n = 175) did not receive intrauterine antibiotics. The percentage of cows that responded to the first (67.5% in TRT, 70.9% in CON) and second (98.8% in TRT, 97.1% in CON) GnRH of Ovsynch was similar between the groups. In addition, the response to the third GnRH administration aft er TAI (88.1% in TRT, 83.9% in CON) did not differ between the groups. However, there was no effect of the cephapirin administration on CR on days 31 and 62 in the repeat breeder cows (43.8% in TRT and 44.0% in CON; 39.4% in TRT and 40.6% in CON, respectively). Thus, post-TAI intrauterine cephapirin administration was not found to be useful for the treatment of potential subclinical endometritis in repeat breeder dairy cows.